My sister is looking for a DVD recordable drive for her computer. Currently she has a Dell Dimension with a CD-RW drive and a DVD-ROM drive. Her main reason for the drive is to archive episodes of her cable access television show (for future reference and to serve as a backup should one of her hard drives go down), which she currently records on a camcorder and transfers to a computer for editing purposes.

I guess speed would be a factor, although in her case, not a make or break one. But quality of writing would definitely be an important factor, not to mention ease of use (i.e. the software package, if any) that comes with a drive. Buffer underrun protection is really a necessity (not that there are probably many drives anymore that don't have it). I also guess that something that can record to non-expensive but high quality media would be a good thing.

Any recommendations? I've been looking at the reviews here, but there's no one perfect one, and quite frankly, I've never really looked for a DVD recordable drive myself. I have no idea.

I'd say a Pioneer as well since mine will write just about anything you throw at it. The BenQ is very impressive in terms of writing quality though not as diverse on media selection I tried to burn an old LONGTEN 001 disc on my 1640 and it didnt work my Pioneer still burns them fine.